Senior Performance Engineer

The Opportunity

We are working with one of North America’s leading privately owned renewable energy companies to recruit a Senior Performance Engineer.

Joining the Engineering and Technology team, you will play a central role in improving the availability, reliability and generation efficiency of the company’s growing renewable energy portfolio.

This position would suit a self-motivated engineer with strong wind turbine performance expertise who can turn SCADA and operational data into practical improvements across an operating fleet.

The Role

As Senior Performance Engineer, you will serve as the company’s subject-matter expert for wind turbine availability, performance, software, controls, operability and control parameters.
You will use SCADA, machine and operational data to identify the principal causes of lost production, investigate recurring faults and underperformance, and lead corrective actions with site teams and other technical stakeholders.
Although wind performance will be the primary focus, you will also support performance monitoring and improvement initiatives across solar and battery storage assets.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the technical authority for wind turbine software, controls, parameters and operability.
• Analyse turbine and plant performance to identify lost production, recurring faults, derates and power-curve issues.
• Lead regular performance reviews with site teams, presenting findings, improvement opportunities and project progress.
• Manage fleet-level turbine software and control-parameter configurations.
• Apply fault analytics to identify repeat issues and recommend practical corrective actions.
• Define and monitor asset-health, availability and performance metrics across wind, solar and battery storage assets.
• Use SCADA and asset-performance platforms such as Bazefield, Power Factors and PI to evaluate operational performance.
• Develop tools and analytical methods that improve the early detection of availability and performance issues.
• Lead initiatives that increase asset availability and generation efficiency while controlling cost and long-term operational risk.
• Provide data extraction, interpretation and technical guidance to teams across the business.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, industry developments and analytical techniques that could improve fleet performance.
• Document historical performance issues, investigations and corrective actions.
• Communicate data-driven priorities and coordinate improvement projects across engineering, operations and other business functions.

About You

You will ideally have:

• A bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science or another relevant technical discipline.
• At least seven years of engineering experience focused on measuring, maintaining and improving system performance.
• Strong experience within wind energy operations or renewable asset performance.
• A track record of developing and implementing performance-monitoring or improvement programmes.
• A strong understanding of wind turbine systems, controls, SCADA data and power-plant performance metrics.
• The ability to interpret electrical, mechanical and hydraulic schematics, drawings and technical documentation.
• Experience identifying performance losses and translating technical findings into corrective actions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical information to non-technical stakeholders.
• The initiative to manage your own workload, lead projects through to completion and secure stakeholder support.
• Willingness to travel occasionally to operating project locations.

Preferred Experience

The following would be particularly valuable:

• Detailed knowledge of wind turbine control logic, software, parameters and operability.
• Hands-on experience with Vestas and/or Siemens Gamesa turbine controls.
• Experience troubleshooting or installing turbine actuators, sensors and instrumentation.
• Knowledge of wind turbine design, plant controls, grid interconnection or regulatory compliance.
• Experience with Power Factors, Bazefield, PI or similar asset-performance platforms.
• Proficiency with Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Python or comparable analytics and dashboarding tools.
• A master’s degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline.

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Orion Group was founded in 1987 and is now one of the largest, independent, international recruitment companies. We have a network of 200 employees working from 24 offices, delivering a range of services – Talent Acquisition, Recruitment Outsourcing Services, Retained Search, Global Workforce Solutions, Completions & Commissioning and Materials Management – across 68 countries. As a global leader in workforce solutions, we recruit personnel across the Engineering & Technical, Office & Commercial, Scientific and Skilled Trades disciplines, for sectors including Oil & Gas, Life Science, Power & Utilities, Constructions & Infrastructure, Manufacturing and Renewables.